First I would like to start this post by asking that no one judge me for my weird interests. Ever since I was a little girl I have been incredibly interested in Science. How did humans come into existence, where do meteorites come from, is there another form of life we do not know about yet? Most importantly when will the world end? Yes, the end of the world has puzzled me for years and has taken up countless mind wondering moments in my life( mostly in boring lectures). On to my point... I was told when I was little after asking my parents "mom dad when will the world end?" "Nikki do not worry it will not end it never can end"...GEE thank you mom and dad for trying to be heros. As I grew older I started hearing different "scientists" stating the world was going to end on certain days but they always were wrong. When I started at the University of MN I quickly enrolled in "Earth and its Enviornments" through this class we spent three lectures discussing the "Mayan Calendar Prediction" this prediction is that the earth will end in Dec of 2012... (hey wait my mom and dad said this wouldnt happen). I decided to do alittle research into the subject and found myself on the website of NASA(they know their s***) on here I found that there is no significant evidence linking the end of the world to the Mayan Calendar rending it inconclusive. So here I am.. still interested, scared for the future and hoping I do not see the end of the world in my lifetime. Science has shaped my life and now made me even more uncertain about the future. I have started to do things that I wouldnt have done before(I went skydiving, bungee jumping and cliff diving) My life has dramatically changed since Nasa told me there is no way they can conclude if this is an accurate prediction or not. Should I believe NASA or the Mayans..
For all you interested in becoming uncertain about the future.. here you go. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html
Much like you, as i grew older the "end of the world" theories were always intriguing. What got me thinking about science is when you mentioned that NASA had information refuting the Mayans prediction. This struck me as important because it showed again that science holds a significant power by being able to refute or deny claims using empirical evidence. It is at this point that we have to ask ourselves how much stock or belief we want to place in science. I particularly liked your statement about how science has made you even more uncertain about the future. I take this as a good thing! With new breakthroughs and developments, there are no limits (besides the government). Science helps create the ambiguity of the future. By solving present problems and making new discoveries, more avenues of science are continuously opening and changing making for an uncertain, but no doubt exciting, future.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested (and so is Carl Elliot) in WHY things like the Mayan calendar become memes. I've met people convinced that it's time to run up the Visa bill because the end is really coming. The history of religions is partly a history of similar stories. What IS it?
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